Anybody with a Contessa wonder why your engine hatch flops around like a wet noodle?-gctid350707

[SKUA_28_Contessa]

Tired of the bow and bounce I decided to remove my hatch and recore it, as I was sure it was soaked. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found it perfectly dry. Now mind you it had a one inch bow in it. After cutting the "core" loose, two thing became apparent, poor quality and poor engineering. The crappy ply wood was laid across, not on edge made out of multiple pieces, and had, almost, NO BOND!! Enclosed are pics for your perusal. I will be boxing out a set of beams across the short span of the hatch to take the load. Funny thing immediately after the last piece of gelcoat was cut loose the hatch snapped back flat.

Attached files [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/653548=24617-IMAG0190.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/653548=24616-IMAG0191.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/653548=24615-IMAG0192.jpg[/img]

[2850Bounty]

Read this thread and try your best to disregard the arguements against putting a mild convex shape to your hatch. It's so simple to do.

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[Guest]

Nope, mine is all good........but that will solve your problem

[SKUA_28_Contessa]

Yep already planned a slight rise in the hatch to prevent pooling

[kwb]

Skua wrote:
Tired of the bow and bounce I decided to remove my hatch and recore it, as I was sure it was soaked. Imagine my surprise when I opened it up and found it perfectly dry. Now mind you it had a one inch bow in it. After cutting the "core" loose, two thing became apparent, poor quality and poor engineering. The crappy ply wood was laid across, not on edge made out of multiple pieces, and had, almost, NO BOND!! Enclosed are pics for your perusal. I will be boxing out a set of beams across the short span of the hatch to take the load. Funny thing immediately after the last piece of gelcoat was cut loose the hatch snapped back flat.

Ply is laid flat because the hatch is used in many applications and some models are short on room under the hatches for carbs/risers.

The bond was poor but had they used enough glass on the bottom side there never would have been very high stress in the area between the top and the wood.

I would basically just redo the original design with a bit of crown added for good measure.

[2850Bounty]

Skua wrote:
Yep already planned a slight rise in the hatch to prevent pooling

Good for you! That will guide the water to the "Scrubbers"!

BTW.... what's a scrubber?